13 times Fox News, its hosts, and contributors publicly apologised in 2018

Fox News’ leadership has made it a priority to crack down on offensive comments by guests and contributors in 2018.

This year, Fox News apologised for Kid Rock calling Joy Behar a “b—“, a guest comparing Hillary Clinton to herpes, and a contributor using a derogatory term to describe the late Sen. John McCain.

Here are 13 times Fox News apologised in 2018.

Cable news shows served as the battleground for some of the most heated of political debates of 2018, and Fox News was no exception.

Every cable network has its fair share of hosts making on-air gaffes, panels devolving into chaotic shouting matches, and control room mix-ups leading to inaccurate chyrons – such as ABC’s airing an on-screen graphic incorrectly stating that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Under the leadership of CEO Suzanne Scott, Fox News in particular has made it a priority to crack down on and limit offensive comments by guests and contributors in 2018, The Hollywood Reporter’s Jeremy Barr reported in November.

Here are 13 times Fox News apologised in 2018:

Fox Business apologised for not countering Rep. Louie Gohmert’s claims that George Soros “stole” from other Jewish people.

Fox NewsRep. Gohmert falsely claimed that Soros ‘turned on fellow Jews and helped take the property that they own’ during World War II.

Fox apologised after GOP Congressman Louie Gohmert made inaccurate, anti-Semitic attacks on financier George Soros in an appearance on Fox Business.

“You mention Orwell, it also reminds me of another George – George Soros,” said Gohmert.

“George Soros is supposed to be Jewish, but you wouldn’t know it from the damage he’s inflicted on Israel and the fact that he turned on fellow Jews and helped take the property that they own,” he added.

As many fact-checking sites have noted, Soros was born in Hungary in 1930 and was only 14 when World War II ended. There is no evidence he “turned on” other Jews or stole property.

While Fox Business host Stuart Varney quickly changed the subject without challenging Gohmert’s assertions, he apologised for and disavowed Gohmert’s remarks in the following hour of his show.

“OK, that is news that we are breaking here. Not appropriate,” host Rick Leventhal said looking visibly stunned before cutting off Paulina’s appearance.

Both Fox News and Paulina later apologised to viewers and Clinton for her remarks.

“We are all Americans, and that is the focus and we want to reiterate that we do not condone the language that Anna Paulina just displayed here, and we apologise to Secretary Clinton for that,” Fox anchor Arthel Neville later said. “Fox News does not condone her sentiment.”

“Yesterday on Fox I was placed on the wrong segment & in the confusion made a brash and unprofessional joke. To Fox and those watching, I am deeply sorry,” said Paulina.

Fox apologised after incorrectly presenting a photo of Philadelphia Eagles players praying before a game as them kneeling during the national anthem.

@FoxNews / TwitterFox mistakenly identified this photo of Eagles players kneeling in prayer as a photo of them kneeling in protest during the national anthem.

After Fox presented the photo as the players kneeling during a segment on the Eagles not attending the White House following their 2018 Super Bowl win, multiple players including tight end Zach Ertz were quick to call on Fox to apologise.

“This can’t be serious. … Praying before games with my teammates, well before the anthem, is being used for your propaganda?! Just sad,” Ertz tweeted. “I feel like you guys should have to be better than this.”

“During our report about President Trump cancelling the Philadelphia Eagles’ trip to the White House to celebrate their Super Bowl win, we showed unrelated footage of players kneeling in prayer,” Fox executive producer Chris Wallace explained in a statement.

“To clarify, no members of the team knelt in protest during the national anthem through the regular or postseason last year. We apologise for the error,” he added.

Former “Fox & Friends” host Abby Huntsman, now of “The View,” apologised for referring to President Donald Trump and North Korean leaders as “two dictators” in a verbal slip-up.

Fox NewsAbby Huntsman on ‘Fox & Friends Early.’

“Regardless of what happens in that meeting between the two dictators, what we are seeing right now, this is history,” Hunstman said while interviewing former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci as part of Fox’s coverage of Trump and Kim Jong-un’s June summit in Singapore.

“As you know on live TV sometimes you don’t always say things perfectly,” Huntsman said after the internet went into a frenzy over her gaffe, which many thought was especially ironic considering Fox’s usually positive coverage of Trump.

“I called both President Trump and Kim Jong-Un a dictator. I didn’t mean to say that, my mistake, I apologise for that.”

Fox apologised for using a photo of Patti LaBelle in a tribute to late soul singer Aretha Franklin.

Fox mistakenly aired a graphic honouring singer Aretha Franklin that included a photo of a different artist, Patti LaBelle, presented as Franklin in the background. The photo comes from LaBelle’s 2014 performance at the White House.

“Our intention was to honour the icon using a secondary image of her performing with Patti LaBelle in the full screen graphic, but the image of Ms. Franklin was obscured in that process, which we deeply regret,” a Fox spokesperson said in a statement.

However, Fox’s statement explaining the graphic mix-up was confusing considering Franklin and LaBelle did not appear together at that White House event. Fox did not respond to INSIDER’s follow-up requests for clarification.

Fox host Melissa Francis apologised for a series of tweets claiming her country cub would not seat her because of her support for Trump.

“We are member of Siwanoy Bronxville but somehow, they can’t fit us in for dinner,” Francis wrote in a tweet which has since been deleted. “Repeatedly. I’m sure it’s a coincidence and not something more. Right? #Never Trumpers #cnn #HillaryForever?”

In a previous tweet, Francis charged that the Siwanoy Country Club “shuns my family again.”

“I want to apologise to Siwanoy management for what I am now convinced was a misunderstanding,” Francis later wrote. “It was juvenile of me to take to Twitter – and I’m not just saying that because I’ve given my kids a get out of jail free card the next time they act like children.”

Laura Ingraham apologised after advertisers pulled out of sponsoring her show over her mockery of Parkland shooting survivor and gun reform advocate David Hogg.

One of the most high-profile media feuds of 2018 began when David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland, Florida shooting and an advocate for gun reform told TMZ in an interview that he had been rejected by a number of California colleges, including UCLA.

The next day, Laura Ingraham, who hosts “Ingraham Angle” on Fox, tweeted out an article about Hogg’s interview with the message “David Hogg Rejected by Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it. (Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA…totally predictable given acceptance rates.)”

Ingraham faced a slew of backlash from across the Internet from what many perceived to be an inappropriate attack on a teenager, with Hogg and other Parkland survivors calling on Ingraham’s advertisers to pull their sponsorships from her show.

After Nutrish and TripAdvisor announced they would no longer be advertising on “Ingraham Angle,” Ingraham issued an apology on Twitter.

“Any student should be proud of a 4.2 GPA – incl. @DavidHog111,” she wrote. “On reflection, in the spirit of Holy Week, I apologise for any upset or hurt my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of Parkland.”

She added: “For the record, I believe my show was the first to feature David immediately after that horrific shooting and even noted how ‘poised’ he was given the tragedy. As always, he’s welcome to return to the show anytime for a productive discussion.”

Fox retracted and apologised for a report claiming that California State Polytechnic University planned to cut enrollment of white students.

In a June interview with Cal Poly student Roberta Martin, host Rob Schmidtt incorrectly reported that Cal Poly “is working to diversify their campus by deliberately slashing the number of white students” and “moving towards a race-based admissions process” by limiting white students to only 40% of the student body.

A spokesman for Cal Poly thoroughly refuted the Fox report in a statement. “The university … aims to create (in compliance with state Proposition 209) a campus community that reflects the demographics of the state it serves,” the statement said.

“That said, the university has not, does not, and will not consider race or ethnicity in the admissions process (doing so is prohibited in California by Proposition 209),” it continued.

Schmidtt later apologised for the report and its factual inaccuracies on air a few days later.

“It was based on a Gallup poll that found only a minority of Dems now very proud of this country. A number of people said they think that’s not a fair conclusion from the poll. I agree and thus the deletion.”

The Gallup poll Hume referenced showed that 32% of self-identified Democrats stated they were “extremely proud” to be American, a decrease of 11% from 2017.

Fox Business apologised to the family of late Sen. John McCain after a contributor made derogatory comments about his time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

Joshua Lott/Getty ImagesThe late Sen. John McCain

“The fact is, John McCain, it worked on John,” Fox military analyst Thomas McInerney said of enhanced interrogation torture techniques.

“That’s why they call him ‘Songbird John,'” he added, referring to McCain experiencing torture during his six years as a POW during the Vietnam War.

“Those methods can work and they’re effective, as former Vice President [Dick] Cheney said,” he added. “And if we have to use them to save a million American lives, we will do whatever we have to.”

Host Charles Payne later apologised for not stepping in to push back on McInerney calling McCain “songbird John” on air, claiming he did not hear the comment at the time.

“This morning on a show I was hosting, a guest made a very false and derogatory remark about Senator John McCain,” Payne later wrote on Twitter. “At the time, I had the control room in my ear telling me to wrap the segment, and did not hear the comment.”

He added: “I regret I did not catch this remark, as it should have been challenged. As a proud military veteran and son of a Vietnam Vet these words neither reflect my or the network’s feelings about Senator McCain, or his remarkable service and sacrifice to this country.”